Introduction

Welcome to the A Good Family History website.
This system is intended to allow a collaboration between
family members and their health care providers to
generate and document the best family history possible.

A good pedigree or family history, for the purposes of health care,
is not one of royalty or where everyone is rich and famous but one
where the most complete and accurate information is available.
This will allow the best assessment of potential health risks
for various family members.

This Web 2.0 application is designed to allow
participation by as many members
of the family as possible, and their health care providers,
so the most accurate and specific information can be entered.
For example, if someone in the family has had cancer, the
risk to someone else in the family strongly depends on the
type of cancer. Because of the way cancer spreads,
family members frequently only know the site the cancer has spread to and not where it started.
This person him or herself or his or her oncologist is the most likely to know the specific type of cancer. The person's spouse, siblings,
or children are also more likely to know the type
than cousins, nieces, nephews, etc.
Since any or all of these people can potentially participate
in storing the family history information the person
most informed has the potential to contribute what they know.
Each family member can enter his or her own information
or information they may know about others.
Since some families are not comfortable talking about
such things, no one has to, it can just be directly entered by each individual.

Although the more communication within the family the better,
having the information available to your relative's health
care providers is what is needed to inform them of potential health concerns or reassure them that there are no concerns.

A Good Family History provides a central and shared place to store
the information and a place that can be returned to and updated
as new medical problems arise or as new information is found out.
It also presents the information in a standardized format used
by medical professionals.

So how do you get started?
First you must register for an account.
If you are going to enter information about your personal
family you would